stephen hayes joins us. senior writer, "the weekly standard." is it possible? >> hey, gregg. yeah, look, i think it's possible. i thought all along for more than a month we were likely to see some last minute, slap dash kind of unsatisfying deal thrown to won't actually do anything to solve the long-term problems but get politicians out of the bind. gregg: like what? >> like something that extends the bush tax rates for those making $250,000 in the last, maybe amt patch, but won't deal with entitlement spending won't deal with long term issues we have to deal with as a country if we're actually serious about changing the trajectory of our debt. gregg: i'll sure you saw john barosso who said the president is eager to go over the cliff. he wants to go over the cliff. what do you think? >> well i think there are political incentives for the president to do just that. if you think about the long-term political liabilities of the democratic party, they have been basically on taxes and national security. and if the president goes over the cliff with the country, and we know that re